Densetsu no Senshi
by Karasuma
Summary: The senshi reawaken into their final forms, for the last time.


Setsuna   
I can feel it now. The revolution is coming, as Saturn prophesied. Time itself is swirling anxiously in the matter which surrounds it, awaiting the new era She will bring. Powering up the soldiers of our army even as they sit, pointlessly, on the currently peaceful Earth. Waiting for the freeze that will come and the revolution that will follow.  
I die slowly inside. A thousand years, stuck back at the infernal Gates with no companions to speak of. Not like the ones I have now. My friends. My family. My three Outer Sisters. How I will miss them.  
I did not age as the others did. I am timeless, therefore my appearance does not change. I don't believe I was even a child. I just... Was.   
The others... it pains me to see them. It will, in some way, gladden my heart when the revolution approaches. They can shed their weak mortal skins and be reborn, as powerful as they ever should have been.  
My friends, my friends... how I shall miss you all...  
  
Michiru  
I can feel it now. The revolution. The mirror, were I able to call upon it once more, would tell me as much. I can feel it inside, building upon my very soul as I lie here, in bed, wrapped up in her arms. As I always am, these days.  
We have aged so horribly. We looked old years before the younger ones did... the Mission aged us far worse than we ever could have imagined. Now we only lie here, together, waiting for death to come in some merciful form. We do not move. We do not eat. Our powers keep up alive, though we wish they would not.  
I shift to look up at her aging face. Hair gone quite silver, eyes dull from life lived under stress that no other mortal shall ever know. The wrinkles I do not even see anymore, so long have they been there.  
She looks down at me and manages a smile, tightening her hold on my fragile, old body. She sighs, she sounds lifeless...  
I snuggle up to her and hide my own aging face, feeling the power build up inside of me. Placing an arthritic-plagued hand upon her chest, I can feel it in her, too.   
"Haruka..."  
"Hai?"  
"It's time."  
  
Haruka  
Time, indeed. Time to rid ourselves of these worthless guises and be reborn as our true selves. I never felt truly comfortable as a mortal. All the chances of being hurt, being killed before we could end our Mission. The limits of a human body were infuriating to me; I was never able to do half of what I was able to in my true form. Even as a senshi, nothing worked to my satisfaction. Except...  
Blushing, I look down at her and smile. "I know I'm ready. What an awful life this one was."  
She shifts her meager weight next to me and smiles sadly. "The next one will be the best. And the last. We'll never die."  
"Doesn't that terrify you?"  
"No. I'll have you with me. Forever." She closes her eyes and smiles.  
I should have known. I bury my face in her thinning gray hair and close my eyes. It won't be long now...  
  
Hotaru  
It's coming... I didn't need Setsuna-mama to tell me. In fact, I had been the one to inform her so many ages ago...   
Like my elder mother, I have a form of immortality, though mine is more physically painful than hers. I was only reborn once on this Earth, but it was enough. Though my earlier years were full of awkward growth spurts, in the end, I appeared to be like Setsuna -- timeless and ageless.   
I left Haruka-papa and Michiru-mama to themselves years ago. It was clear they no longer wanted to live, though I knew it would be impossible for them to die before their ordained time. I moved out of our country home with Setsuna-mama, traveling with her as we enjoyed our last moments as humans.  
It won't be long now. I can feel the Glaive, calling to me...  
And, for once, I want to answer it.  
  
Makoto  
I sit on the porch with Minako-chan, in the little nursing home we put ourselves in. I'm in my wheelchair I've been in for years; she's rocking poor old Artemis to sleep and humming to herself. We don't speak. All the words we ever needed to say to each other were said years ago. Now we only sit, and wait.  
We can feel it coming. We could long before Artemis informed us of it, in his old raspy voice. Now we sit here and wait.  
I had a good life, despite how it started. After that final battle, there was nothing for the senshi to do but attempt to lead normal lives. I tried, God knows I tried. Married the man of my dreams, like I always said I would. Bought a cozy bakery in downtown Tokyo.   
But he died years ago. Ages ago, it seems. The bakery went to my youngest daughter. The other children... they write me often.  
But it is time for us to leave. I reach to Minako-chan, knowing she'll feel it too.  
  
Minako  
I take Mako-chan's hand and squeeze it as well as I'm able to. I can sense the others all over Tokyo... they're preparing for this, too. Artemis shifts nervously in my lap, looking up at me with gray fur hanging in his dull blue eyes. I scratch that place behind his ears that he likes so much, and he relaxes. We're together, all of us. It won't be long now.  
I had an interesting life. I traveled the world, recorded a few albums. Became an idol for a short time, even. My life's dream. Yet, somehow, it wasn't enough. I had a few lovers along the way, but no one I could relate to. Married once and had a daughter, but he left me for his secretary and my little girl is off in Hollywood somewhere. Following in her poor mother's footsteps.  
I can feel my powers surging inside this foolish mortal body. I cannot answer the call just yet... Give me a few minutes...  
  
Rei  
Foolish old woman that I am, what am I doing out here? I sit on the balcony to the temple, dangling my old bony legs over the side like some teenager. Teenager, indeed. No longer can I kneel before the Holy Fire. No longer can I call upon the power of that red chunk in the sky, Mars, and fight for what's right. No longer can I even sweep the temple stairs.  
Grandfather died only months after that final battle of ours, leaving me to marry Yuuichirou, like everyone, including myself, knew I would, and continue the life of the temple. We did a good job -- Yuuichirou and I made a good team. No kids to speak of, and Phobos and Deimos flew off decades ago. Just the two of us and the little Hikawa Shrine. It wasn't true love -- we both knew it wasn't -- but it was close enough, and comfortable enough, and we lived together happily, albeit not always peacefully.  
Yuuichirou, too, died a few years ago, leaving me here to sit and wait. Wait for what, I didn't know at first.  
But I do now. I can feel it building. All over Tokyo, where all my fellow warriors are at this moment. The wind whips through my graying, thinning hair, and speaks of a passion we all long for.  
Freedom.  
  
Ami  
Leaning back in my old, antique chair, I gaze out the window as well as I'm able to. Years of glasses going higher and higher up in prescription have left me quite blind in my old age, though it has never stopped me from reading everything I can get my hands on.  
But these days, everything has been read, spoken, heard, seen. Experience was what I always wanted, and I have more than had my fill. "War and Peace" has been taken off the shelf far too many times. "A Tale of Two Cities" has been analyzed down to the last word.  
It is time for me to stop trying to block those earlier memories of mine. To remember myself as a warrior once more, not as a philosopher. My true form will always triumph over my mundane form, and I need to accept that once again.  
I need to do it quickly. The prophesy Saturn burdened us with so long ago is coming to pass, and we must all be prepared.  
  
  
Serenity... Serenity... Serenity... It is a chant that echoes throughout the city, in the hearts of the warriors still left behind. Usagi, Mamoru, their child... all three killed in a horrible accident years ago. Their memories begin to haunt the city. Serenity... Serenity...  
Serenity. It is what they all desire more than anything. Serenity...  
Serenity begins to flow with another name. Endymion... Endymion... they are calling to each other. Serenity... Endymion... Two rich voices filling their minds, their hearts, their souls, their very being. Serenity...  
That is the word which affects them most. Serving under the second Serenity will be a blessing rather than a curse -- the first time they will truly embrace the thought of becoming soldiers once more. Mortal humans have shown them how lucky they truly were to be so powerful. Serenity...  
Setsuna stopped in the middle of her programming. Serenity...  
Hotaru interrupted her conversation with the Frenchman and closed her eyes. Serenity...  
Michiru buried her face further into Haruka's neck. Serenity...  
Haruka tightened her hold on Michiru, her most precious treasure. Serenity...  
Makoto grabbed Minako's hand for dear life. Serenity...  
Minako's gnarled hand rested on Artemis' head and trembled, ever so slightly. Serenity...  
Rei gripped the sides of the temple stairs and stared defiantly into the sun. Serenity...  
Ami took off her glasses and placed them in her lap, looking strangely into her mini computer resting there. Serenity...  
A horrendous storm began over the Juuban district in urbanized Tokyo. Scientists are baffled as a succession of nine lightning strikes hits the Star Tower, one after the other, leaving half the city in an electrical power outage which will last, appropriately enough, nine days.   
The light show has only begun...  
  
  
Serenity... I have found her.   
No, that isn't quite right. I have BECOME her. She is a part of me, and I am a part of her. The past me as a princess, the Terran me as a warrior, and the future me as an empress. Perhaps even my mother, the first Serenity. We are one body, one soul, slowly fusing together with the lunar power which flows in us like the blood in human veins.   
I have shed that mortal guise of mine, and become a spirit, a being, perhaps even a goddess. I do not walk, I do not float, I simply DO, I simply AM. I am here, and it is time we all banded together once more, for the final time.  
I can See them... not so much in a physical form... no, I can See eight bright lights shining like beacons across the earth: seven of them in our home, and one quite far off. Perhaps in Europe somewhere. Hotaru had always expressed a desire to visit France...  
I shake myself from these thoughts. She is Hotaru no longer. Suddenly, she is by my side, her vaguely scythe-like Glaive resting in her hands comfortably, but dangerously. She is not Saturn just yet, but merely Sailorsaturn, the strongest form a mortal body can take. She is older now, more menacing, even after all these years.  
"Serenity-sama," I hear her whisper softly, "it is time."  
I call the other six bodies to me, knowing the bodies no longer harbor the lives I once knew. The lives I was honored enough to call my friends while we all still lived.  
It is painful for me to see them like this. It makes me grateful I died so young... bodies should not have to see so much wear, so much suffering. I know they suffered -- I can see that clearly, particularly in the Outer Warriors, holding each other tightly even in death. We will never know their pain. Thankfully, now we will never have to.  
Easily I invoke the power which flows freely from my home planet to my heart, as natural as a stream through the earth. The mortal bodies burst into ash at the mere sight of the power, as I knew they would. There is no sound, not even a wince of pain from what was once Sailorsaturn, the only senshi I still see alive. There are only seven shining lights in front of me, and I can sense the eighth somewhere off in the distance of space. Her body has not disintegrated, nor will it. She simply binds to whatever power she is given. Alone, as she always has been. Poor Pluto...   
Slowly, I build them back up again... taking memories from my mother, buried somewhere in my heart, of their humanoid forms, their appearances... taking experience of both the Terran time we had together and the future I know they will have to face, and using it to create my demigods, my soldiers, my protectors.  
My friends.  
They are only silhouettes now, blazing with planetary fire in front of me. Mercury bursts into existence first... no longer a sailor senshi, but Mercury. The planet personified. Her face is the same as it has always been, but it is stronger, older, and even more beautiful than any of her previous forms. A pale blue light envelops her form with a warm, pulsating power, and her blue eyes explode into life, showing no pupils -- only the deep, intense blue of a mind constantly in motion.  
Mars is next. Venus. Jupiter. Saturn, Glaive in hand, shining with its own sinister light. Uranus. Neptune Each with their own pulsating auras, the same brilliant intensity burning in their eyes. They have all been reborn to their new, perfect form.  
I notice something now that I never could as a mortal. There is a connection between Uranus and Neptune identical to the one I can See between Endymion and myself. Just as strong. Just as clear. It makes my heart smile.  
Suddenly, he is there by my side, if I have one to speak of... we are both simply beings now, not really humans at all. I can feel him surround me with a different kind of power, the power of his love for me. It gives me strength to speak to them, for I am as in awe of them as they are of themselves.  
"My faithful warriors," I whisper to them, knowing they hear me just as loudly as if I had shouted at the top of my voice, "shall we go?"  
They look at each other, still slightly shocked at their appearances. Neptune and Uranus especially seem disconcerted about their appearance. They stare at each other as though for the first time.  
It is Saturn who has the courage to try her new voice. "Where are we going?"  
"The moon," I answer -- or perhaps I don't. I only hear a voice, quite detached, yet clearly my own. "The Earth will freeze over, as we were told in the future. We must begin our plans... our own future."  
Finally, they all break their gazes from one another and nod quietly, proudly, with all the strength of their past lives increased a hundredfold.   
And the legend begins again, for the final time.  
  
Author's Notes:  
Wow. I got shivers writing this and they kept going when I read it over. I take that as a good sign, even if everyone else thinks it's a piece of worthless tripe. :P I'd really like to get everyone's opinion on this, so please send comments to poor little lonely me at crowsgirl_392@yahoo.com.   



End file.
